The invention in concerned with oil spill recovery, and in particular the invention relates to large scale, offshore oil spill skimming equipment capable of high volume recovery at virtually 100% oil delivery, and with provision for handling debris encountered with the oil.
Skimmer barges for oil spill recovery have been known. U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,070 of Edwin A. Bell, assigned to Cities Service Oil Co., disclosed a floating oil skimmer barge for still water use (not off-shore use), having a series of compartments separated by floating baffles or weirs. Inflow to each compartment occurred over one of the floating weirs, with the position of each weir controlled by pumping of water at controlled rates from the bottom of the compartment, to establish a flow between compartments. The concentration of oil was said to increase as the oil/water mixture flowed over each successive floating weir, ultimately to an oil recovery chamber near the rear of the vessel.
The Bell patent did not disclose or recognize benefits of control features of such a floating oil recovery barge, or the need to prevent or discourage laminar flow aboard the vessel in order to aid separation. These and other features are included in the offshore oil spill skimming apparatus of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,556 of Douglas J. Gore (the inventor herein) discloses a floating stationary skimmer which has a single floating weir. In one embodiment the weir is shown as being adjustable as to buoyancy. That skimmer was not capable of ocean going skimming of oil spills, and only a single weir was included.